


Overreach

by htbthomas



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Birthday Fic Challenge 2017, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, Partnership, Post-Star Wars: A New Dawn, Pre-Canon, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 20:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10771521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/htbthomas/pseuds/htbthomas
Summary: For ColtDancer's prompt: "one of the early times Kanan has to over-stretch his Force abilities, not wanting to because it makes him a target (and Hera, then, too), and the effects - he's powerful, but rusty, and the use of that power absolutely zaps him."





	Overreach

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ColtDancer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColtDancer/gifts).



> Happy Belated Birthday!

Hera pops over the top of a crate, firing off a couple of blaster shots in quick succession. She ducks back down, face grim. "There's a lot of them, Kanan." Return fire blazes over their heads, proving her point.

Kanan looks down at his ruined blaster. They're stuck here unless they can somehow force their way out and get back to the ship. "Do you have another one of these on you by any chance? In your jacket, your pants, maybe your lekku...?

She grimaces at his attempt at humor. He does, too—it was a little terrible and a lot tactless. "Didn't go with my outfit," she drawls, her mouth quirking up. "What about you? Where's your lightsaber?"

"Didn't bring it." He hadn't thought to. In fact, he tries not to have it on his person most of the time, and especially not during a boring supply run like this was supposed to be. It attracts too much attention from the wrong sort of people.

And hiding his skills means he's out of practice. Meditating every day and practicing against remotes isn't enough. But without a weapon, what other choice does he have? "Maybe I could try…" He wiggles his fingers in a vague gesture.

They haven't really known each other that long, but she gets it. "Are you sure? If you do, and they capture us, that'll be it for you."

"If I don't, that'll be it for both of us."

She studies his face for a long moment. Then she nods. "Okay." She reaches out to give his shoulder a light squeeze, and the contact floods him with warmth. "I'll cover you."

As she pops up again, he closes his eyes. If there are a lot of them, he's going to have to draw on a lot of energy. How much can he handle? 

Reaching out with his senses, he feels the stormtroopers. Each life, each presence. He focuses on the closest one, giving him a shove backward and into his comrades. There's an echo of surprise through the Force and down he goes, taking out two others.

Hera shoots a couple times in the confusion, injuring them enough to keep them down. "Good! Keep going, Kanan."

He reaches out for more, drawing as much as he can handle. He slams one into the wall here, pulls a blaster out of another's hand there, topples a crate across the path of yet another. It feels strange to extend himself so much, but it also feels good, feels useful, feels like something he could be doing more often to help the cause.

So he reaches out just a little farther, to see if he can feel and stop the reinforcements that must be on their way, connecting them all together and _pushing_ —and then his mind goes white with pain. He grabs at his head, groaning.

Hera is at his side in an instant. "Kanan, what happened? What's wrong?"

He can't speak for a minute. His head hurts, his eyes hurt, his face hurts, his tongue and teeth hurt so much they can't form words.

"Kanan?" She puts her hands on his face to tilt it upward. "Kanan, speak to me…!"

He winces at the contact—the pain cancels out the softness of her touch. "Just—" He swallows. "Did too much…"

She pulls him up, wrapping an arm around his waist. "I'll get you to the ship before any their buddies get here."

"What about—?" he starts to say, and then she's dragging him past the crate where they'd been hiding. Everywhere, stormtroopers are down, silent or lightly groaning. "Oh." Then the pain hits him again, so hard that she has to guide him the rest of the way back.

He implements a stricter training regimen the next day. After he can see straight again.


End file.
